This invention relates generally to a package which may contain a variety of multi-food products, suitable for convenient cooking in microwave ovens, and further includes one or more additional ingredients that are addable to the cooked or cooking food products while being serviced in such microwave ovens.
Packages of the indicated type are known. Bags of this type are manufactured by a variety of companies, and generally such bags are designed for holding food products which may be chilled or refrigerated, or even frozen, while during storage, in preparation for usage, and then may be added directly to the microwave oven for instantaneous heating and cooking.
In addition, bags of this type are also fabricated of the self-opening style (SOS) with gussets provided along the sides thereof whereby the mouth of the bag can be opened by pulling at discrete locations, such as at the diagonally opposite corners of the bag in order to facilitate quick access therein.
In accordance with this invention, there is provided a microwavable package which cooks two or more different food ingredients at the same time, but in separate chambers within the package. Said products are normally incompatible during storage and thus requiring mixing, or combining either sometime during the cooking cycle or at the end of said cycle. Various ingredients cannot be mixed together prior to cooking generally because they are incompatible in storage, or because the flavor desired in the final cooked product cannot be achieved if the two or more ingredients are combined during preparation, or while in storage, or prior to cooking. Accordingly, the two or more ingredients should only be combined after they have been cooked or during cooking in the microwave oven. Also, it is inconvenient or impractical to require the user to provide the second or other ingredient independently after or during the microwave cooking of the first ingredient, or the product itself, since the ingredients may not be readily available to the user, or it may not be practical or safe to interupt the cooking cycle to add such additional ingredients.
Examples of food products of the indicated type are: expandable snack food with highly seasoned powder flavoring; expandable snack food with oil or lard and a third ingredient of flavoring; popcorn with liquid or dry flavors that cannot be premixed with oil; and, food or snack food requiring oil or flavor or both for oil and flavor or oil or not compatible.
In accordance with this invention, there is provided a package which maintains two or more ingredients of a food product in separate compartments within the package and in an arrangement such that they are kept separate during storage, but that they can be combined easily and automatically at the end or during the microwaving cooking process at predetermined times and in a very convenient way to the consumer.
Briefly stated, the method of making a microwavable package in accordance with this invention comprises the steps of initially placing a microwavable bag in an upright open position and delivering a quantity of the first ingredient into the interior of the bag; applying a specially developed seal of a predetermined width, configured at a predetermined dwell, pressure and temperature and designed having opening time which will sustain in enclosure the first ingredient in a first compartment in the lower segment of the formed package, and then delivering a quantity of a second, or more, ingredient of the product into the interior portion of the package above the first seal; and then applying a second specially designed seal of a predetermined width and configuration with specific dwell, temperature and pressure, designed having a specific opening time, to the upper end of the package to enclose said second ingredient, etc., in a second, etc., compartment at the upper portion of the package adjacent the said first compartment. The first and second seals are formed by application of the specific pressure, specific heat, and dwell. Said seals are constructed and arranged so that the first and second seals are caused to be fractured at predetermined times during the cooking cycle. The highest or last seal is designed to open only at the end of the cooking cycle, after all of the subsidiary packaging compartments, holding the variety of ingredients, have initially opened, under the cooking pressure generated and developed within the main compartment of the package, so that when the final upper seal is opened, and the product or food has been fully cooked within the microwave oven, all the homeowner, or chef, need to do is simply remove the package from the oven, and it is ready to be dispensed into serving dishes, onto a plate, or the like.
Additional seals in any of a variety of locations can be designed, if necessary, with a type of configuration to allow the steam and pressure to by-pass the first seal, and vent out of the top of the package, if this should necessarily be accomplished before any of the seasonings, other ingredients, or the like, are descended for mixing into the main food or other product primarily being cooked.